


You came back

by thebattlingbard



Category: Doctor Who, UNIT: the New Series (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-13 18:15:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18474421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebattlingbard/pseuds/thebattlingbard
Summary: River Song finds herself magically transported to UNIT headquarters but does she find herself back in the arms of her once lover Kate Stewart?





	1. Chapter 1

River Song was sitting chatting to a handsome young man in a bar on Planet Earth.

“It’s hard, isn’t it? Life I mean? You don’t need to answer that it was rhetorical. Of course, life is hard, that’s what makes it fun, fun and bloody frustrating. You see, I was happily going about my business, no, I shan’t tell you what that business was you, naughty boy when I picked up a jug that transports you to the person you don’t want to see but need to see. I’m not sure how it does this but I can tell you it does it very well and I like things that do their job well. I picked up the jug to admire its beauty. You see I adore beautiful things” she said while lightly stroking the young man’s arm, “and being an archaeologist I like old beautiful things, even more, that’s when it happened, that’s when I went *poof* and ended up in the Tower of London. I must tell you I was actually in a sook in Marrakesh before I lifted the jug, talk about a quick flight. Of course, I didn’t realise it was the Tower at first, as I was actually in a storage locker of all things, all dusty and dark and, naturally, the only door in the room is locked but thankfully I had my trusty sonic screwdriver with me but, the door is made from wood. Really, I still can’t believe there’s not a wood setting on those things, mind you I can just hear my Doctor if there was, he can be terribly childish. So I had two choices: number one Sit and wait till someone comes or to make an almighty noise and get rescued. I choose the latter, either way, wasn’t ideal and they would end the same, anyway. I was about to start banging on the door when it opened and standing there was a small, pretty woman with glasses, sucking into an Inhaler and wearing a shirt with question marks on the collar. She knew who I was instantly and got quite excited I’m very pleased to say, a girl likes to be appreciated. 

‘You’re River Song’ 

She shouted excitedly at me 

‘Wife of The Doctor’ 

‘Yes, on both accounts’ I replied. 

‘What are you doing in our storage room? She inquired 

‘Well, truthfully, I don’t have a clue’ I answered. It was then that she came in.”

‘Osgood, what the devil is going o…River!!’ 

“Kate Stewart head of a secret government task force was stopped in mid-sentence by my presence. I like it when I do that to people.” 

‘Hello sweetie’ I couldn’t help but reply as I walked up to her and kissed her on the cheek. Wiping the lipstick mark off, I said ‘Oh, don’t worry it’s just regular boring lipstick… unlike last time and I gave her a wink. You could practically hear Osgood turn a bright shade of red. 

Kate Stewart gently pushed River away.

“What are you doing here River?” Was the most obvious question that Kate could ask but never the less was important.

“Kate, Would you believe me if I said I don’t know?” 

Kate gave a gentle laugh “I have a hard time believing anything you say, so I probably won’t believe you but by all means tell me anyway” 

“Here!” exclaimed River “do you not have a nice, cosy office or somewhere that’s clean and doesn’t smell of week-old milk”? She moved forward to Kate, reached out her arm and touched Kate’s left lapel and continued softly   
“Somewhere we can be alone” 

Kate gave an order to Osgood to have Tea and biscuits brought up to her office immediately. 

“That’s more like it," smiled River.


	2. Chapter 2

“So this Jug transported you here?” Kate Letherbridge-Stewart asked with some confusion in her voice while putting the teacup back on the saucer.

“Yes. Unbelievable I know but there have been incidents like this in the past, so much so that the people from the planet that own the devices, the Neeuqlive, have stopped producing them and had as many as they could find burned or destroyed. The one I found slipped through the net.”

Kate leaned forward on her desk and pushed the cup and saucer to one side, they made a clinking sound as they moved.

“You said the Jug sends you to the one person you don’t want to see but need to see, is that right?” River just nodded yes as her answer.

“If that’s the case, then “She paused before carrying on unsure of how to say it “why are you here? River” “I mean I can understand you not wanting to see me after the way you left things 2 years ago, but that doesn’t explain why you need to see me.”

River leaned back against her chair and crossed her legs at her ankles “Truthfully, I don’t know why I need to see you” she paused and then carried on “yet. But I’m sure if I stay here long enough the reason will become clear”

“Oh, no!” exclaimed Kate as she got out of her chair rather brusquely “I am not having you here distracting me”

River smiled “Oh so I’ll be a distraction to you will I?” she leaned forward rested her hand on her chin gave a wicked looking smile and drummed her immaculately manicured nails on her chin and gave Kate a wink.

“Rest assured, River, Osgood will find a way to transport you back to where you came from. Marrakesh wasn’t it?” She asked rhetorically.

River stood up and made her way towards Kate she took her by her hands “You don’t want to send me back just yet though, do you? We have a mystery to solve and I know how much you love a mystery.”

Against her better judgment Kate knew that this was true, she didn’t want to send River back…not yet anyway. She looked at her and memories, good memories, came flooding back. God, she didn’t want to send River back at all.

River Song had a way of hypnotising people, these people fell into two camps, those who fell for her charm, wit and Beauty and those who,well, didn’t. River liked to think of those people as work in progress. Kate, however, was a little different from both sets of people as she now seems to have feet planted firmly in both camps and this was utterly confusing for Kate.

Kate reached forward to the small plate of biscuits sitting on her desk, she lifted it and offered it over to River. “Maybe”, she continued “the reason you don’t want to see me is because of our unfinished business. Maybe, you’re finally ready to talk about why you left?”

River declined a biscuit but answered Kate’s query “you’re just not going to let that go are you, Kate? It’s been 2 years, haven’t you gotten over it by now?” it sounded crueler than she had meant it to be and she let that be known on her face.

“I had. I had let it go but then you suddenly appeared in my storeroom and that sort of thing has a habit of stirring up old memories.”

River reached for Kate’s hand and stroked it gently “hopefully more good ones than bad?” she looked into Kate’s eyes and smiled hopefully.

Kate pulled her hand away roughly. “You said that like you actually care, River. You just ran away and left me. No word of why just a pathetic note” She reached into her drawer and pulled out a bit of paper and tossed it in River’s Direction. “In case you don’t remember what you wrote” River picked it up and read the note aloud

“It’s been delightful” her tone filled the room with sadness.

“And that was all you wrote, River. Oh, the lipstick kiss was a nice touch, however” Kate added sarcastically.

“You kept it?” asked a confused River “why?”

“I loved you and I thought if I held onto the note long enough, you might come back to me.” “I didn’t want to believe that you had gone for good, maybe you had to go away on serious archaeology business or something.” “I thought of every reason in the book as to why you would up and leave me without saying why, every reason in order to not confront the truth that it might have just been me that made you leave.” “Of course, what I really wanted to be the reason is that you had gone off with the Doctor and now you’re back and even though it’s been 2 years for me, it’s really only been about a day for you. You know the Doctor, he can never get his timings right” “but it wasn’t that was it?” She held her gaze hard on River

“No. No, it wasn’t that” Look. Darling, I can’t tell you the real reason yet, I’m just not ready to do that. Even though you do deserve an explanation”

“Well, at least you acknowledged that much”

There was a chirrup from the intercom which broke the silence between them. Kate reached forward and pressed the talk button.

“Yes!”

It was Osgood telling her that they had started to run some tests on the jug if they wanted to come down to the lab and watch them.

“We’ll be right there” Kate replied back.


	3. Chapter 3

Kate and River walked into the laboratory and saw that Osgood was standing next to a Glass case with the jug in it. She had a huge grin on her face and the excitement was almost bursting out of her. She touched the case and began to speak twenty to the dozen as if she slowed down she would forget what she wanted to say. 

“Osgood, slow down, take a breath and start again” commanded Kate 

Osgood apologised, took a hit from her inhaler, took a breath, smiled and started again.

“So here’s what we know, we know this jug is from the planet Neeuqlive and it’s very dangerous hence the case. 

“Yes. We know all this already Osgood. Can you tell us something we don’t know? Something science-y perhaps? Exclaimed River. 

“Science-y? Yes, right. Well, we” Osgood pushed up her glasses they had a terrible habit of slipping down her nose. “We’ve found, by managing to look on the bottom of the jug, a timer. A timer that is starting to count down but we don’t know to what.” 

“A Timer," Kate repeated “And you didn’t think to lead with that? Okay, never mind. What can we do about it?” 

“That’s the thing, we don’t know yet. But we’re working on it” 

River was walking around the case and decide to get on to the floor and crawl underneath the case to see this timer for herself. 

“Oh, an hour, that’s not long. Exciting. 

“When you've quite finished River, we have business to attend to” exclaimed Kate. 

Osgood stretched out her hand to offer River a hand up. River gracefully took it 

“Thank you, sweetie" 

Osgood blushed and replied “That’s quite alright” 

Walking back to Kate’s office river remarked that Osgood was a little strange Kate corrected her and said she was unique and absolute vital to the efficient running of UNIT.

“I don’t doubt that for a second” replied River. Pretty too, don’t you think? 

Kate answered a little too quickly, which did not go unnoticed by River, “I can’t say I’ve noticed.” River just gave a faint smile.

Sitting themselves back down in Kate’s office River exhaled and stood up and lifted her chair and walked around with it and placed it next to Kate. She reached over a took Kate’s hands with some trepidation in her voice, she spoke

“Kate, I…” she stopped and then Smiled and started again

“Kate, it’s time I was honest about why I left you and I promise it will be the truth. You deserve that, you’ve always deserved that. I was a coward, and I ran.”

“You see I…” she grabbed Kate’s hands a little tighter and continued

“Kate, look at me!” River commanded gently

Kate did as she was told, she was good at following orders

“Kate, I loved you and that morning waking up next to you I watched you sleep and I watched as you silently talked in your slumber, the words formed on your lips but no sound came. That was the same over the many nights we spent together. I found it a comfort, my keeper of secrets, silent even when sleeping. It was that morning I realised that I wanted this to last forever, I wanted us to be forever.”

River stood up and began to walk around the room, it was easier, to tell the truth when you don’t have to look someone in the eyes. She continued her, voice sounding ashamed  
“The realisation of that thought terrified me.”

“If this is you trying to make me feel better River, it isn’t working. I don’t normally have women tell me they love me and then leave a little later. And I certainly don’t have them come back two years later to explain themselves” 

“Yes, I know I’m sorry. I’m sorry also that it’s a taken a magical jug to get me to be honest with you. I went halfway around the Galaxy and I never once forgot about you and I did try but I liked the pain that ache in my heart every time I thought your name. I made a huge mistake in running away I just didn’t know how to fix it. In fact, it was you that popped into my head when I originally saw the jug. I thought Kate would like that as I lifted it up” 

Kate stood up from her desk and said with certainty “Well, it seems we’ve solved that mystery” 

“Yes, it does.” Replied River she continued “But I don’t want to go. Not yet. I want to fix this, fix us. Is there a chance?”

“I won’t lie to you I do still love you River but I’m angry at you too, it just seemed so easy for you to just get up and leave our life.”

She walked over to River and took her by the hands “Our life” she repeated

“Oh, you still smell the same, that beautiful scent of expensive perfume. When you left I could close my eyes for at least a year afterwards and still be able to smell that scent. Then one day, I just couldn’t that was the day you truly left me and that was also the day I allowed myself to breakdown and cry. I wasn’t giving you that satisfaction up till then.”

“You’re wrong you know,” said River song gently “It wasn’t easy leaving you, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do and I killed The Doctor.” She continued

“I left because I was scared, scared of the future what would happen to use. I wanted to preserve the present in aspic and not have it change. I left so I could always remember the good times. I’m an archaeologist, we like to look at the past more than the future but the problem is I didn’t realise until it was too late that, yes, you are my past but you would have also have been my future too and that would have brought so many gifts but I was just too full of fear to see that at that time. Standing here today and seeing you again after 2 years all I want to do is kiss you and forget the past, even just for 5 minutes.”

Brushing Kate’s cheek with the back of her hand she reached forward and gave her a kiss on the lips and then pulled gently away.

“Damn it, River”

Kate grabbed River by her shirt front and pulled her towards her and kissed her right back. 

The chirrup of the desk phone disturbed Kate right at the moment she had one hand up the front of River’s shirt and the other up her back. 

“That’ll be Osgood” she complained.

River not wanting Kate to take either of her hands away held the receiver up to Kate’s ear for her and while she was speaking she rather unhelpfully began to kiss Kate’s neck causing Kate to punctuate her questions with sighs which she tried hard to hide. 

“No, everything is fine Osgood. Just a little tickle in my throat. Yes, a glass of water will do the trick. Okay, we’ll be there in…” she looked as River held up 5 fingers 

“5 minutes” then River put down the phone. 

Kate continued to unbutton River’s shirt 

“Just enough time to quickly pay my respects to the girls. I’ve missed them” she kisses both of River’s breasts one at a time River giggles 

“They’ve missed you too”


	4. Chapter 4

Opening the door to the lab Kate is greeted with a sight of a giant countdown clock being beamed onto the far side wall. Osgood explained that she had rigged it up so she didn’t have to get under the table every time she wanted to check on the status of the countdown.

“See, told you she was good” Kate exclaimed to River.

They notice that they only had 30 seconds left on the counter

River took Kate’s hand “This is it.” She turns her head and buries her face in Kate’s shoulder.

“No!” Kate gently said “If this is it then I want us to go out like this…” and she lifts River’s head and kisses her on the lips.

The timer goes off; the jug smashes to pieces but that’s all that happens.

Cheers rang around the building as people began to realise that they actually hadn’t died, today anyway but this is UNIT, after all, Tomorrow is never guaranteed.

Kate remarked about how that was a huge waste of time and resources. While also realising that she was still holding on to River’s hand. She drops it so she can get back to being Boss of the task force and a Boss does not want to be seen holding hands with anyone let alone a wanted criminal if she is still wanted it’s hard to tell these days. River smiles but doesn’t look at Kate she answered Kate’s statement

“Was it though?” she qualified her question “A waste of time?” “We got back together back to each other, the jug did its job.”

Osgood sensing there was going to be another “Moment” decide to make her excuses and left the room.

“We may be back together River, but I can’t see where we can actually go…as a couple” she tumbled over those last two words. She continued “It can’t end in marriage as you’re still married… I think”

“Kate, it’s enough for me to know that you would marry me if you could. So how about we see how things go? We get on with our lives, together.” 

Kate leaned forward and kissed River softly on the lips “Yes, that sounds just fine to me…sweetie” and gave her a cheeky grin.

“Oi!” River playfully punched Kate on the shoulder.


	5. Epilogue

The handsome Young man interrupted River just as she was finishing up her story and said with some bewilderment in his voice

“So, that was it? The timer went off, and the jug exploded. Your Kate was right, that really was a waste of time. You lead me to believe that something exciting would happen”

River took a long sip of her drink and then replied

“That’s one of my many talents, making things sound more exciting than they are. Which is why I’m looking forward to re-reading my diary entry about our little chat”

The young man laughed and then asked River “What about you and Kate now? Are you still together?”

River beamed a huge smile and replied

“Spoilers”

 

The end


End file.
